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The stock market suffered a losing year in 2018, and even the high-growth companies in the Nasdaq 100 struggled. The index's losses were modest, however, amounting to just 1%. But that was still a big letdown after big gains earlier in the year.
A lot of stocks weighed on the Nasdaq 100, but a few had particularly large declines. Below, we'll take a look at Western Digital (NASDAQ: WDC), JD.com (NASDAQ: JD), and Kraft Heinz (NASDAQ: KHC) to see why they were the worst stocks in the Nasdaq 100 in 2018.
Bad memories for Western Digital
Western Digital ended the year down 54%, and the biggest concern stemmed from the ever-changing role of technological innovation on its business. Western Digital has been a giant in the hard disk-drive business for decades, but the rise of solid-state drives using flash memory has proven to be a big challenge for the company. Even with enterprise customers turning to traditional hard drives for data centers because of their cost-effectiveness, Western Digital ended up acquiring solid-state leader SanDisk, which in turn heightened the company's exposure to the cyclical memory-chip market.
Image source: Western Digital.
Western Digital hopes that appealing to data center customers will help it rebound in 2019, and it's also aiming at capturing a bigger portion of a growing addressable market. Yet short-term negative impacts could hold the stock back in 2019, and the company itself has warned that it could take a while for Western Digital's long-term goals to move within reach. That'll require patience -- something that shareholders haven't shown much of lately.
JD tries to move on
China's JD.com saw its stock lose half its value based on a combination of factors. Not only did the fundamental business start to see slowing growth as the e-commerce giant responded to growing concerns about the strength of the Chinese consumer economy going forward, but JD also had to deal with allegations against founder and CEO Richard Liu that distracted from the company's business performance.
Those following the stock hope that JD will be able to move beyond its challenges in 2019. The company will take advantage of its slumping share price by making stock repurchases of up to $1 billion, and between its restructured internal divisions and its efforts to broaden the scope of the services it provides to its customers, JD is optimistic that it can keep up the pace with its competitors in the Chinese internet space. If Liu can successfully rebut allegations and get back to focusing on the business, then JD could see a new surge of confidence.